A double-float structured triboelectric nanogenerator for wave hydrological monitoring

Triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) is one technique for real-time monitoring of wave hydrology. However, the influence of environmental factors is a key problem for the practical application of TENGs. In this study, a TENG with a simple but durable double-float structure (DF-TENG) for wave hydrological monitoring is proposed and analyzed. Different with traditional TENGs, the frequency-domain parameter Ns (number of sub-signals) is uti-lized. Experiments indicate that the designed DF-TENG is effective to measure the wave hydrological information (wave height, motion frequency, motion period and vertical speed) with great robustness even under the in-fluence of environmental factors (humidity, temperature and wind force). In the case that wave height increases gradually from Hr = 35 mm to Hr = 145 mm, Ns raises up from Ns = 4.5 to Ns = 20. A linear relationship between Ns and Hr is obtained as Ns = 0.1346Hr -0.2821, with a perfect correlation of R2 = 0.99. More importantly, the proposed Ns shows great robustness and the fluctuation of it is almost zero even under different environmental factors. This study confirms the feasibility of the DF-TENG for continuous monitoring of wave hydrology, which is meaningful for the real application of TENGs in the future.

Automated summary

In this study, a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) with a double-float structure is proposed for real-time monitoring of wave hydrology. The experiments show that the TENG is effective in measuring wave height, motion frequency, motion period, and vertical speed, even in the presence of environmental factors. The proposed frequency-domain parameter Ns shows great robustness and a linear relationship with wave height.